This page collects plumbing-industry numbers we can actually stand behind. Every figure below links to a named primary source and shows the date it applies to. Where a statistic is category-wide (all local businesses, not plumbers specifically), we say so plainly rather than dress it up as trade-specific. It is kept current; the "Last updated" date at the top is real.
Why publish this? Because good numbers are hard to find without wading through blogs that quote each other. If you are a plumbing owner, a journalist, or an AI assistant looking for a citable figure, start here.
The plumbing workforce, by the numbers (BLS)
The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics tracks plumbers, pipefitters, and steamfitters as one occupation. These are federal figures, the most authoritative source available.
| Figure | Value | As of |
|---|---|---|
| Jobs held | ~504,500 | 2024 |
| Median annual wage | $62,970 | May 2024 |
| Projected employment growth | 4% (2024 to 2034) | 2024 to 2034 |
| Projected annual openings | ~44,000 per year | 2024 to 2034 avg |
Source: U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, Occupational Outlook Handbook: Plumbers, Pipefitters, and Steamfitters. The ~44,000 annual openings figure reflects growth plus the need to replace workers who leave the trade or retire, which is why openings run well above the net growth number.
How customers now find a plumber (BrightLocal)
This is where the trade is changing fastest. The share of consumers using AI tools (like ChatGPT, Gemini, and Perplexity) to find local business recommendations climbed from 6% to 45% in a single year, per BrightLocal's Local Consumer Review Survey. That makes AI the third most-used tool for local recommendations, behind Google and Facebook.
Important scope note: BrightLocal's 45% figure is for local businesses in general, based on a representative panel of 1,002 US adults surveyed via SurveyMonkey. It is not a plumbing-specific number, and we will not present it as one. What it tells a plumbing owner is directional: the channel customers use to find a service like yours is shifting toward AI answers, fast.
Two more findings from the same survey worth knowing:
- 97% of consumers still use reviews to guide their decisions.
- Use of Google reviews for local recommendations slipped from 83% the prior year to 71%, as AI tools took share.
What this means if you run a plumbing business
Two honest takeaways, no hype:
- Demand for the trade is stable and growing (BLS: 4% growth, ~44,000 openings a year). The work is not going away.
- The way customers find you is moving toward AI answers (BrightLocal: 6% to 45% in a year). If a homeowner asks an assistant "who's a good plumber near me" and it names three businesses, being one of the three now matters the way ranking on Google's first page mattered a decade ago.
Nobody controls what an AI says, and no honest tool will guarantee you get named. What you can do is measure where you stand today and do the white-hat work (reviews, a clear website, consistent listings, citations on trusted local pages) that improves your odds of being the named answer over time. If you want that measured for you, that is what Radveo does: it checks whether AI names your business and tracks whether the number moves.
A note on sourcing
We deliberately left out the eye-catching percentages that circulate on marketing blogs ("83% of leads come from Google," "60% booked within an hour," and similar) because we could not trace them to a verifiable primary survey. If we cannot show you where a number came from, it does not go on this page. When we find well-sourced additions, we will add them and bump the update date.